Landscape Difficulty

Landscape Difficulty makes landscape fights more challenging for players in exchange for bonus experience points, cosmetics and titles. Each player can choose any of ten levels of difficulty with the highest (9) being dramatically more difficult.

You can only change your level at a Hardened Traveller and this is enabled once you complete your race introduction. The system to do this is implemented as a "quest" given by the Traveller whereupon you should immediately "complete" it through talking to him again.

As the name implies, Landscape Difficulty applies when in the open world. It also applies to solo skirmishes and missions, and often to duo ones too. Landscape Difficulty debuffs and effects are disabled inside of other instances, and Delvings (after accepting a quest from the delving stone).

The Hardened Traveller can be found at the following locations:

Coordinates	Directions / Description
[29.7S, 51.3W]	(Bree) The Prancing Pony
[32.1S, 76.5W]	(The Shire) Little Delving
[13.8S, 103.1W]	(Ered Luin) Thorin's Gates
[28.1S, 92.3W]	(Ered Luin) Celondim Across from the Stable-master
[25.4S, 48.7W]	(Bree-land) Archet
[60.4S, 34.6W]	(Swanfleet) Mossward
[5.9S, 105.1W]	(Zelem-melek) The Twenty-first Hall

Effect on Gameplay

When "completing" a Difficulty "quest" through the Hardened Traveller, the character will gain a Difficulty debuff. This debuff has the following effects on the character:

• Decreases your Outgoing Damage.
• Decreases your chance for successful attacks, by lowering Finesse Rating.
• Increases in Incoming Damage to you.
• Decreases your Physical and Tactical Mitigation by a percentage.
• Increases your XP and Virtue XP gain
• Triggers random buffs on enemy targets and The Eye of Sauron effect

The higher the Difficulty selected, the more pronounced these effects will be. The effects persist even outside of combat and thus will affect any calculations for maximum values of Mitigations and Finesse.

Levels and Effects

The following is a list of Landscape Difficulty levels along with the effects that are applied both to the character and any enemy targets while at that difficulty.

Tier	Difficulty Quest	Character Debuff(s)	Outgoing Damage	Finesse Rating	Incoming Damage	Phys/Tact. Mitigation	XP Gain	VXP Gain	Enemy Effects
0	Difficulty 0: Normal	None	None	None	None	None	None	None	None
1	Difficulty 1: Adventurous	Difficulty 1: Adventurous	x0.8	x0.9	x1.25	None	+10%	+1%	None
2	Difficulty 2: Daring	Difficulty 2: Daring	x0.64	x0.855	x1.5	None	+15%	+3%	None
3	Difficulty 3: Fearless	Difficulty 3: Fearless The Eye of Sauron	x0.51	x0.812	x2	-3%	+20%	+5%	Enraged Effects
4	Difficulty 4: Fearless +1	Difficulty 4: Fearless +1 The Eye of Sauron	x0.41	x0.771	x2.5	-3.5%	+20%	+5%	Enraged Effects
5	Difficulty 5: Fearless +2	Difficulty 5: Fearless +2 The Eye of Sauron	x0.33	x0.732	x3	-4%	+20%	+5%	Enraged Effects
6	Difficulty 6: Fearless +3	Difficulty 6: Fearless +3 The Eye of Sauron	x0.26	x0.695	x3.5	-4.5%	+20%	+5%	Enraged Effects
7	Difficulty 7: Heroic	Difficulty 7: Heroic The Eye of Sauron	x0.21	x0.66	x4	-5%	+20%	+5%	Enraged Effects
8	Difficulty 8: Heroic +1	Difficulty 8: Heroic +1 The Eye of Sauron	x0.17	x0.627	x5	-5.5%	+20%	+5%	Enraged Effects
9	Difficulty 9: Heroic +2	Difficulty 9: Heroic +2 The Eye of Sauron	x0.14	x0.596	x6	-6%	+20%	+5%	Enraged Effects

Deeds and Titles

The appropriate Landscape Difficulty "quest" must be "started" and "completed" at level 10 or before. Characters over level 10 cannot start and then qualify for the deed(s). Likewise, setting the difficulty level to lower than the minimum required for a deed will cancel it and block the character from ever completing it. Once completed, the bestowed title(s) are Account-wide, and can be used by any class.

Note: If you want to qualify for Fearless deeds, you must not try a lower difficulty first! Difficulty 3 or above must be the first difficulty level you choose.

Class	Deed Level 50 Adventurous and higher	Deed Level 50 Fearless and higher	Deed Level 130 Adventurous and higher	Deed Level 130 Fearless and higher
Beorning	Apprentice of Claws	Disciple of Claws	Adept of Claws	Master of Claws
Brawler	Apprentice of Fists	Disciple of Fists	Adept of Fists	Master of Fists
Burglar	Apprentice of Shadows	Disciple of Shadows	Adept of Shadows	Master of Shadows
Captain	Apprentice of Banners	Disciple of Banners	Adept of Banners	Master of Banners
Champion	Novitiate of Blades	Disciple of Blades	Adept of Blades	Master of Blades
Guardian	Apprentice of Shields	Disciple of Shields	Adept of Shields	Master of Shields
Hunter	Apprentice of Bows	Disciple of Bows	Adept of Bows	Master of Bows
Lore-master	Apprentice of Scrolls	Disciple of Scrolls	Adept of Scrolls	Master of Scrolls
Mariner	Apprentice of Sword-play	Disciple of Sword-play	Adept of Sword-play	Master of Sword-play
Minstrel	Apprentice of Song	Disciple of Song	Adept of Song	Master of Song
Rune-keeper	Apprentice of Runes	Disciple of Runes	Adept of Runes	Master of Runes
Warden	Apprentice of Arms	Disciple of Arms	Adept of Arms	Master of Arms

Rewards

Defeating enemies while at  Difficulty 3: Fearless or higher has a chance to drop Tokens of Heroism, which are Task items which can be turned in at the Hardened Traveller for weekly repeatable Task quests. The weekly repeatable Task quests also grant reputation for The Path of Valour faction and grant Hero's Marks which can be bartered for consumables and emotes.